Advances in technology have improved upon and expanded the variety of mechanisms individuals use to communicate. Today, these mechanisms provide the ability to communicate textually, auditorily, visually, or by any combination thereof, i.e., multimedia communications. With these advances, it is commonplace for an individual to simultaneously use or have access to many different mechanisms for communication. As a result, it is not uncommon for an individual to attempt to contact another individual using a first mechanism for communication, while the other individual is involved in an existing communications session using a second mechanism.
For example, a first individual may attempt to contact a second individual via a text messaging service while the second individual is involved in a video conference with a third individual. In this scenario, the second individual may not notice or respond to the first individual's text message in a timely manner or may plan to respond but ultimately forget. If the first individual's text message contained important or time sensitive information, the second individual may miss the opportunity to respond or be disadvantaged. Alternatively, the second individual may notice the text message and interrupt the video conference with the third individual. In the case where the text message does not contain important or time sensitive information, this interruption may be a nuisance.
Consequently, there is a need for a system and method to notify an individual that the party the individual is attempting to contact is participating in an existing communications session and automatically suggesting or inviting the individual to join the existing communications session without interrupting the communications session.